GNOSIS

I rediscovered Gnidrolog in a recent fit of nostalgia partly driven by middle age no doubt and partly in despair at hearing anything interesting in what my children are listening to. It was then a pleasant surprise to find they had made a relatively recent album. I was then coming back to them and comparing the new and old material. I think I would differ a little in the assessment of the other reviewers, on the positive side. What I liked about this album is that it appears to be an attemt to create an artwork without becoming pompous and overblown. One of the interesting evolutions seemed to be in the lyrics. In the first two albums these seemed to be relatively weak compared to the music and the very distinctive voice of Colin Goldring. The new songs seemed to be drawn from lived experience and avoided some of the grandiosity of the early work which is replaced by an authenticity which deepens the work in my view. I would agree that the music is a little less 'edgy' than the early work, but there is real diversity here, between the aboriginal sounds, the middle-eastern and 'cantor' style and of course the rock base. Despite this, they retain the idiom they were working in that gives it a feel of continuity which belies the long period between the composition of some of the songs. Added to this, the production values are very high, which, given that this appears to have been produced on a shoestring is impressive. The vocals and musicianship still have the power to move, especially as they are now exposed by their music rather than hiding behind it. So, I would say they pulled off an almost impossible feat - they evolved from a body of work a quarter of a century in the closet. I can only hope they feel up to doing another album in which they will have the confidence to push their new music into a slightly more edgy form.